Solder Bars

[unique]

I was rooting thru my lead stash and found what looks like solder bars. There is no letters or markings on the bars. Any suggestions on how I might determine if these are solder bars other then sending out for assay.

310430

[Recycled bullet]

If they cannot be nipped with diagonal cutters it's probably zinc

Bang on steel high pitched noise tink tink tink. If they are thin enough to bend and tin content is high enough they scream or make weird noises when bent.

Easily melted with propane torch.
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[high standard 40]

With no markings they could be decoy weights.

[Edward]

Look soft from here/Ed

[unique]

I think I will measure the density and see where that leads. 50/50 Solder has density 0f 8.87grams/ml. Easy enough to do => weigh bar and convert to grams. Roll up and place in ml graduated beaker that has water and note difference in ml with and without. Divide grams by ml and you have density. Pure lead is 11.3gr/ml and Tin is 7.3gr/ml. 1ml=1cm3.

[Willie T]

50/50 solder will melt just under 425 Fahrenheit.

[mdi]

I have never seen commercial lead solder in strips like in the pics. Normally bars similar to this; https://www.mcmaster.com/solder-bars/

As High Standard 40 mentions, may be weights...

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

If you have a good accurate thermometer?
Then Tin/Lead Solder is easily identifiable via observing melt/freeze temp.
https://www.kester.com/Portals/0/Documents/Knowledge%20Base/Alloy%20Temperature%20Chart.pdf

[Ron in PA]

I have the same tin bars that i got from a yard sale. It must be a Pittsburgh thing.

[megasupermagnum]

I bought a bunch of solder bars that look just like that. They have no markings either. They were advertised as 95/5 lead free solder. I had a member test it with an XRF machine. It turned out to be 98% tin solder, I treat it as pure tin. I don't think there is a more accurate way to find out than an XRF machine.

While these bars were clearly much harder than pure lead, they could still be bent easily like lead, and otherwise behaved like a wheel weight or duck decoy anchor.

[whisler]

Old body solder used for body filler before body putty was invented, came in bars like that. I believe it was 70/30 lead/tin.

[unique]

Some things mention here which I didn't think about. Thanks everyone.

[Rickf1985]

Do they have a medium indentation in one side? If they do it could be lead came used for installing commercial windows. That is pure lead so the easiest way to check that would be the melt test. Pure lead does not melt until around 620 degrees. In the attached pic there is a piece of Lead came in the center of the pic, right of the brush and left of the bent solder bars, It is a different color then the solder bars. I did hit it with the brush so that brought out the lead color a bit.
310500

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Bars:
Way way way back in time, I worked at a PCB company and I operated their wave solder machine. We'd order 63/37 solder from the same vendor, but that vendor would buy from anyone and everyone, so the solder was sourced from multiple foundry's and/or recyclers. Anyway, the point is, some bars were poured and stamped, some were extruded with no markings what so ever...and the sizes varied, but were always cut so they weighed 16 oz. So you can't go by what the bars "look like."

[unique]

Do they have a medium indentation in one side? If they do it could be lead came used for installing commercial windows. That is pure lead so the easiest way to check that would be the melt test. Pure lead does not melt until around 620 degrees.

So these do not bend easily but are bendable by hand with enough force and these do not have an indentation. Yes, I am considering check the melt temp as suggested by others as well. I didn't know that lead was used for installing commercial windows but I would be surprised if still used today.

[Rickf1985]

Well, if you have a piece of glass that weighs upwards of a ton you have to set it in something forgiving or it will break as the glass and building move in heat and cold. It is also glued in but something has to hold the weight. A friend of mine was a glazier up until his retirement in the early 2000's and they were still doing it that way.

[unique]

Well I measured the density of those bars and found that the larger bars have a density close to Sn60/Pb40. The smaller/thinner bar had higher density near Sn50/Pb50.

The manner in which I calculated density is rather straightforward. The chart of solder alloys show Sn60/Pb40 has density of 8.50grams/cm3.

First thing I did was cut a section of the bar and weigh that which weighed 15.5 ounces and converted that to grams by multiplying by 28.35 so this bar weighed 439.4 grams.

Next, I took a clear container of water filled to some arbitrary level. I marked where the line was. I placed the section of bar in the container which obviously raises the water level. I then took a syringe graduated in ml and removed water until the water level was back to the mark, keeping track of how many ml were removed. I know 1 cm3=1 ml and in this case I removed 54ml of water or 54 cm3.

So 439.4/54 = 8.1g/cm3 and looking at the chart find that Sn60/Pb40 (without Ag) has density of 8.50grams/cm3 so these bars have a bunch of tin in them and that is all I really wanted to know.


http://alasir.com/reference/solder_alloys/